How much is too much?

Big queens that we are, we were watching Stacy London's special, Fashion Fanatic, on TLC the other night and, big MARRIED queens that we are, we got into a little argument over something.

The divine Stacy was reporting on high end shoes and bags, when she informed us that one of the bags retails for $10,000. Tom immediately said "That's ridiculous." Lorenzo pounced. "Why? If you have the money, why not buy a $10,000 bag? Should everything be bought at Payless and Walmart?"

He's cute when he argues absolutes.

Anyway, Tom struggled with his point. "It's about...context, I guess. It's a disproportionate amount of money to be paying for something like that. I can understand buying, say, a pair of shoes for $800 or even a handbag for- I don't know - let's say $5000. But after that, it's just a bullshit amount of money. Look at it this way: You'd pay $50,000 for a car, even $100,000. But would you pay a million bucks for a car?"

"YES!"

Honestly, it was like trying to describe frugality to Imelda Marcos.

The point was, everyone has their threshold. It can be persuasively argued that a $5000 Hermes bag is of much higher quality than a $50 bag bought in a department store. Same goes for a pair of Manolos vs. a pair of Payless. Money quite often does buy higher quality. It can also buy higher style. But seriously, what does a $10,000 bag have that a $5000 bag doesn't?

Lorenzo's default position is "If they have the money, who cares?" And he's right. But Tom thinks once you cross that (admittedly, highly subjective) threshold, you're just paying bullshit amounts of money because someone came up with an exorbitant price tag and you're gullible enough to meet their price.

What's your threshold? Do you even have one?